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I finally got around to trying this. PCB etchant was available at my local radio shack, vinegar at target, nitrile gloves and low-lint shop rags, sandpaper, and acetone from the auto parts store, and I already had the glass.

I mixed about 5oz vinegar with 5oz pcb etchant in a med glass jar, and then just cut and wadded up a 6"x6" section of clean rag and dipped it into the solution. I used a pyrex baking pan just as a place to rest the knife and catch drips / run off. I was really amazed at how fast the reaction happens. I bet it would be slower on a stainless knife, but on highly-reactive shig carbon, it was almost instantaneous. In just a few seconds the contrast was super dark and as soon as it looked like it wasn't getting any darker I dunked it in water and then washed it under running water, clean/ cleaned it with a soft, soapy cloth, and rinsed again, and did a final clean and rub-down with another bit of the soft shop rag.

Looks like a great success!! One interesting side-effect is the the areas where the jigane and hagane in the kitaeji meet turned slightly "glittery." Any idea on why? It's not pitting, the surface is still as glass-smooth as when I polished it. Perhaps something to do with the coarse grain structure of the soft iron-like material that shig uses in the cladding?
I'm sure that it will fade as further oxidation / stabilization sets in, but it looks cool.

Some quick phone pics as documentation that "it happened."

Thanks again to Dave and the other contributors of this great resource thread!

So I have a question on etching. Can you etch a non-damascus blade black? For example the Itto Ryu black gyuto. Could that be an effect that could be achieved from ferric chloride on some type of Hitachi steel? Or would the etching just destroy the blade? I'm hoping that someone out there with more experience can give me some insight.

Can any of you who have done the etching with the ferric chloride tell me the proper way to discard the used acid? It's not something I'd want to toss down the kitchen drain so I'm assuming that there is a way to neutralize it prior to disposal. Or has everyone just bottled it up for future use?

Can any of you who have done the etching with the ferric chloride tell me the proper way to discard the used acid? It's not something I'd want to toss down the kitchen drain so I'm assuming that there is a way to neutralize it prior to disposal. Or has everyone just bottled it up for future use?

After mixing it with vinegar as per dave, I just saved it in a glass jar. Since Dave's method for applying it uses the swab-on method, not the dunk-in, you don't contaminate your solution. In the sealed glass container it hasn't seemed to decrease in potency at all even over several months of storage.

If for some reason you HAVE to dump it, I'd just dilute it waaaaay down with water and then run water down the drain afterwards to make sure that you flush it out of any of the traps / elbows.